The Northern California International
is now just over two months away and the time is ripe for players to
enter.With six GMs and thirteen IMs currently signed up, more than half of
the current field holds one of those two titles! This should make the event
unquestionably one of the strongest average fields amongst tournaments in
the US. It will also provide great potential for players to make norms.

One of the newer signups is German GM Georg Meier, who just took
part in the prestigious Spice Cup A group. With him, along with GM Tiviakov, the tournament will now boast two
players around 2650 FIDE - another rather rare thing in American events.With the two of them, along with GMs
Shankland, Margvelashvili, Friedel, and Boros, the competition should be
extremely fierce.

The relaxing schedule of the tournament, with five of seven days having only
one round, should also provide players a much less tiring event than usual
along with giving them an opportunity to see one of the US's premier touristic
cities, San Francisco.The city will be
a great place to visit during the event around New Year's time, both
for the many attractions and for the nice weather that is rare in
January around the US.There are also many fine accommodations
available to players for the event within easy walking distance of
the tournament site.

Anyone interested in taking part in this event should contact the organizers
Arun Sharma and Ted Castro.The deadline to receive the advance entry fee is November 1 so those who
wish to take advantage of that should contact organizers very soon!